


Phases of the Moon

by hotmess_ex_press



Series: Crystals and Flowers [3]
Category: CLC (Band)
Genre: Angst, F/F, I Don't Even Know, Love CLC because they deserve the world, One-Sided Relationship, Stan CLC, Support CLC, Unhealthy Relationships, Witch AU, honestly i don't know, i don't ship it actually, imagine them from 'hobgoblin' era, where am i going with this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 10:28:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14494968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotmess_ex_press/pseuds/hotmess_ex_press
Summary: The first time any lost traveler wandered their way into the woods surrounding Seungyeon's little cottage, her name was Ting Yan, and it wasalmostan accident.





	Phases of the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Requested!
> 
> I'm so sorry this took so long! I hope to write more fics about Seungyeon and her other lovers soon but oh yeah I'm a lazy piece of shit. OOPS. This work isn't as good as the first one but I hope you like it!

The first time was almost an accident.

After all, broken halves make a whole, and halves are meant to be together.

Seungyeon missed the big city. She missed the hustle and bustle of people crowding the dirty streets, dipping in and out of little tucked-away shops with time on her hands and money to spend. She longed for air heavy with noise and sticky with smoke and dust, for the press of hurried bodies and the feeling of needing to be there ten minutes ago.

But she also remembered the hate. The fear of being found, being tortured, being killed, all for the power that sparkled through her veins. The words, the slurs, the threats carelessly thrown at people like her and Seunghee. Her old friends and once-lovers would laugh and jeer at her, and her family turned away completely.

The loneliness, the pain, the heartbreak.

It howled inside of Seungyeon, like a swirling black hole. An aching, gaping emptiness that swallowed up her glow easy as if it were spring water, and she curled in on herself.

A thousand miles away from the cottage hidden away by forest and sky and witchcraft, with the cloudy skies and steely ocean casting a silvery shadow over the pebbly shore, a girl's heart was broken, shattered into nothingness, leaving behind a sprawling abyss in its place.

The vacant spaces called out to each other, yearning for one another.

Some holes crave being filled. Others want to grow bigger. And with a nudge of magic from the full pearly moon, and a touch of sorcery from the absence of Seungyeon's smile, they reached out for each other.

Rain fell from the dark sky like falling stars when a girl tripped while escaping into the woods, not noticing how the trees were richer shades of emerald and silver, glittering with something unidentifiable, when she stood back up. Thunder wailed when Seungyeon opened the front door, fingertips boiling, ready to defend, only to find a lost girl, drenched from head to toe, with lightning catching in her pale-blonde hair and rose-red lips, looking for a warm place to sleep.

Seungyeon gave her that and more, and Seunghee produced oven-warm pastries, seemingly out of nowhere.

Only when Ting Yan was sitting by the fire in a dry nightgown, knit blanket clutched tight around her body with a cup of cocoa spreading sweet-smelling steam throughout the room, did Seungyeon settle next to her, holding the still-shivering girl close to her. Her hair smelt like sugar cookies and vanilla. She hooked a finger under Ting Yan's chin, tilting her head, looking into those innocent, childlike eyes. "Where do you come from, Ting Yan?"

Ting Yan's eyes widened further, dropping to the curve of Seungyeon's lips. "A seaside village."

There was no ocean around, not for miles, but Seungyeon's eyes seemed to show only truth when she whispered soothingly, "We'll get you back, then. Tomorrow."

Her mind, however, held but lies.

Because Seungyeon was selfish, and their brokenness _matched_ , and they were like two magnets pulled towards each other through time and space.

She wanted, _needed_ , Ting Yan, which is why Ting Yan awoke with only a dim memory of her old life and the want, the _need_ , to stay by Seungyeon's side, as long as there were stars in the sky.

It wasn't like anyone could resist Seungyeon in the first place, her, in all her gleaming violet glory.

Seunghee suspected, but she was too gentle a creature to create conflict based off of suspicions. She watched with cautious eyes, carefully storing her magic close to the surface, just in case she needed to use it.

Ting Yan tilted dangerously into Seungyeon's orbit, crashing into maddening, deliciously unpredictable love.

*

"I wanted to run away," Ting Yan breathed, voice a ragged whisper against Seungyeon's skin as she leaned against the sorceress' shoulder. Tear tracks lay streaked on her cheeks, but her eyes were dry. She sighed, burying her face in Seungyeon's collarbone. "I thought he loved me, and I loved him so, so much..."

She shuddered. Seungyeon stayed silent, knowing that the girl needed to say more.

"That's why I got lost, trying to forget. But it was good, wasn't it?" She looked up at Seungyeon with a hopeful expression. "I found you. And...and you make me feel more at home than he ever did. Do you feel that?"

Seungyeon avoided her eyes, instead tracing her fingertips over the arch of her cheekbones. "Yes. I do."

Her hand traveled to cradle Ting Yan's neck, and Ting Yan's resulting smile was suddenly met with Seungyeon's hot, quick lips. The witch's mouth molded against hers effortlessly, like melted silver, fluidly, perfectly. Ting Yan tasted like sugary cotton candy and morning dew, crystalline, fragile, precious. She kissed back shyly, tongue sliding along sweetly against Seungyeon's, movements laced with something infinitely yet unnoticeably more gentle and sincere than the other's.

They pulled apart, breathing hard and fast, and when Ting Yan looked at Seungyeon, you could see the sun reflected in her eyes.

*

"Pick peaches with me, Seungyeon!" Ting Yan exclaimed, pulling the enchantress towards the small orchard. The way her shining hair trickled down her back and fluttered in the wind around her, her flowing floral dress that dipped just low enough in the neckline to reveal milky skin and the softest hints of her collarbone, a young, unguarded glint in her eyes, it all gave her an air of purity that Seungyeon wanted nothing more than to be the one to rip away.

"Of course, baby," Seungyeon replied, pet name slipping out like second nature. Birds chirped and the breeze rustled through the leaves on the many trees, providing quiet music against the kiss of the morning sun.

Seungyeon watched as Ting Yan reached up to pick peaches, eyes tracing the lines and curves of her body as she stood on tiptoes, fingers carefully grasping at a ripe fruit. Something predatory and possessive stirred in her as Ting Yan rushed towards her, bare feet sinking into the plush green grass, two peaches clutched in her hands.

With a playful "Thank you," Seungyeon stole one from her grip. The sweet and the sour blended together perfectly, bursting into her mouth when she took a bite. Beside her, a single drop of juice slid down Ting Yan's chin, and Seungyeon wanted to kiss it away, taste the fruit and her lips all in one.

So she did.

She threaded her fingers through Ting Yan's silky hair, leading her closer. Her tongue ran over Ting Yan's lips, asking for entrance.

Ting Yan complied, far too easily.

*

"So," a quiet yet firm voice sounded from behind Seungyeon. She dropped the asphodel stalks she was holding and turned away from her potionwork to face a frowning Seunghee.

"What?" she hissed, wiping her hands on her worn white apron. "Can't you see I need to focus? This better be important."

"You know what?" Seunghee bit back, fingers twitching instinctively as anger flared across her face. She took a step closer, a step farther than what Seungyeon was expecting. "I daresay it is. I'm not blind, Seungyeon." Her gaze lingered on the herbs and extracts displayed in front of the pair, and she gestured harshly in their direction. "Asphodel? Cloves? Anise? You have to stop this."

Seungyeon let out a bitter chuckle, purple sparking dangerously behind her eyes. "She's happy here. Why should I stop?"

"It's not fair to her. And how do you know she's happy here? _She_ doesn't even know. She can't remember what happiness feels like, you've made sure of that. _Seungyeon._ Wake up."

Seungyeon gripped at her own forearms, hard enough to leave behind the crescent markings of her fingernails, and stared out of the window, at the pale blue, waning moon. "Seunghee, lay off. It's not your business."

Seunghee's hands lifted of their own accord, as if she wanted to grasp onto Seungyeon's shoulders, shake her into submission, but she frustratedly ran them through her caramel-colored hair instead. Her voice finally broke. "It _is_ my business. You're hurting her, and I can't stand that."

"You don't know that," Seungyeon whispered, eyes snapping shut, and she walked away from Seunghee, whose jaw clenched painfully. "Please, Seunghee. You don't know how much I need this."

She didn't open her eyes until she was certain Seunghee had left the room. When she did, unshed tears glistened in the eerie moonlight, before she hastily wiped them away and focused back on her work. The sun would be up soon, after all, and she wanted to complete her projects before Ting Yan awoke.

*

The sun painted violent rays of bloodred light through the evening sky, mingling and clashing with the striking gold of the thick clouds and the streams of shadowy plum beginning to soak into the horizon. It would be a new moon that night, the stars alone on their journey through the eternal sky.

The cocktail of colors filtered through the open windows of Seungyeon's bedroom, tinting her and Ting Yan's skin shades of ambrosia. Ting Yan rested with her head nestled on the older girl's shoulder, whose cheek nuzzled into Ting Yan's smooth, just-brushed hair. It was cozy and almost too warm, with their legs tangled together, their arms tight around each other, and the leftover heat from the late summer afternoon lingering in the still air.

Ting Yan hummed, absentmindedly playing with Seungyeon's fingers, and her voice was hushed, blending perfectly with the chirps of the cicadas and the songs of a hundred birds, when she spoke. "Seungyeon, do you think it's funny? I don't recall much of my life in my old town. You know, from before I met you."

Seungyeon stiffened a bit, though neither girl could ever admit it, before relaxing and trailing light kisses across Ting Yan's knuckles. "I don't know, baby. I just don't know."

Their eyes met, and soft smiles were exchanged. Ting Yan licked her lips, a movement habit to her but bewitching to Seungyeon.

"It's just," she continued, "I sometimes feel...off. Like I should be missing something, or somebody, but each time I think of visiting home, I feel like I have no choice but to stay here."

Seungyeon made a small noise in the back of her throat, shifting to let her lips brush over Ting Yan's forehead. "Is that a bad thing, though? Wanting to stay with me?"

Big eyes widened further and words tripped over each other as they rushed out. "Of course not! I'm just being silly, I suppose. Don't worry about it, Seungyeon!"

Seungyeon smiled.

She waited until Ting Yan was deeply asleep before gingerly slipping out of bed.

She needed to be more careful, if Ting Yan realized what she was doing...

Seungyeon shuddered just thinking about it.

But she knew a better way to ensure Ting Yan's happiness, her oblivion. At first, she had hesitated, wary of the consequences, but she knew it had to be done. Two parts of a whole cannot exist without each other.

And so, she only felt the tiniest bit of remorse when she made her way back to their bedroom from the kitchen, vial of water from the stream by their house and a chunk of coarse rose quartz, one that would soon become quite familiar to her, held tightly in her hands.

*

"Look," Ting Yan motioned excitedly at a passing cloud, blindingly white and satisfyingly fluffy. "That one is shaped like a sea turtle!"

Seungyeon grinned down at her, fond look in her eyes. The two were settled on an old blanket spread out in the sun-warmed grass of the gardens, Ting Yan's head in the older girl's lap, with a basket full of fruits, cheeses, and a loaf of fresh-baked bread long forgotten on the ground next to them. The afternoon was hot and sticky, tiny dots of sweat gluing black and blonde hair to gloriously tanned necks. Everything felt lazy and slow, but pleasantly so.

"Yeah?" Seungyeon teased, fingers coming up to tickle her neck, the girl scrunching her nose with a squeal and wiggling cutely. "I think it looks like a rose."

Seungyeon brushed over a particularly sensitive spot and Ting Yan let out a breathy laugh. In retaliation, she poked at Seungyeon's stomach, causing her to double over, laughing loud and full.

Only after the heat became unbearable and fatigue clouded their limbs, did the two collapse on the blanket, last drawn-out giggles stealing their way out of their lips and disappearing into the hum of insects and animals calling and dancing in the surrounding wilderness. Their eyes found each other and they fell into an easy silence.

Ting Yan shifted closer, hand stroking Seungyeon's cheek, tentatively but affectionately. "Seungyeon," she whispered, pausing to let her tongue flicker over her lips, "I think...I think I love you."

_Love._

The single word echoed through Seungyeon's mind, bitter as cold tea clattering around in her brain. _Love._ It felt like an anchor, dragging and weighing her down, like ropes, tying her up and keeping her there forever and ever and ever. A promise she had to make but could never keep, a trap set to clip her wings and steal away her freedom.

But then there was Ting Yan, her barely-there edges and doe eyes, her fleeting touches and shy gaze, and Seungyeon wanted it all, just for a little longer, even if she had to lie.

A beat.

"S-Seungyeon?" Ting Yan's lower lip quivered, just a little bit. "Will you say it back? Do you...do you love me?"

The sound of Ting Yan's voice snapped Seungyeon out of whatever trance her previous words had tipped her into, and she let her arms circle the other's waist.

Reassuring voice, adoring eyes, awestruck expression, all perfectly calculated to allow Ting Yan to believe her.

"Of course, baby. I love you too."

*

It had gone on too far.

Seunghee _knew_ that, eventually, Seungyeon would come to. In time, she would realize the right thing to do, or, if not that, then she would get bored of Ting Yan and send her off without a backwards glance.

(Already, she can see and sense the restlessness in Seungyeon's actions, when she holds Ting Yan, when she whispers meaningless promises to her, when she sings to her and rocks her back and forth on sleepless nights. The way her eyes glaze over, as if already imagining the next friend, the next flame, the next lover. Seunghee knows.)

But eventually is not soon enough. _In time_ is not _now_ , and Seunghee regretted letting things continue for as long as they had, anyway.

(Really, Seunghee should have known that nothing she could do would stop Seungyeon from stealing away another friend, another flame, another lover. And in a way, she _did_ know, she just hoped. She hoped and wished and prayed that somehow, magically, painlessly, overnight, Seungyeon would learn her lesson.)

She couldn't just stand back and watch, not anymore, so she needed to help.

So what if Seungyeon had magic on her side? So did Seunghee.

And, as long as she knew the intention was good, she could do anything.

So, in a dark room, thick red curtains blocking out the glow from the waxing moon, heavy door keeping out the sounds of light banter from the warm, bright kitchen, Seunghee pushed and pushed through the transparent borders of her mind. Escaped from the confines of reality and traveled, swam, floated, towards the walls of Seungyeon's. Through the endless maze of thoughts and trickery, through the paths carved from dreams, wishes, and hopes, she found it. A pulsing, swirling star. A hole, of sorts, one that the presence of Ting Yan almost soothed.

Seunghee imagined touching it, grasping at the edges, and expanding it. So much that it overwhelmed any relief Ting Yan brought.

The loneliness, the pain, the heartbreak, and then, something new. The addiction. The want, the need for something fresh and fun and never before seen.

At long last, Ting Yan was not enough to fulfill that need. With a touch of regret, though she knew it was for the best, Seunghee gave it until the next full moon.

The connection broke.

Seunghee snapped back into her body like a pebble thrown into a pond.

She slumped onto her slide and slept right where she was, too exhausted to move.

*

Seungyeon could see the pure, almost obsessive love in Ting Yan's eyes when she caught Ting Yan watching her. 

She could see the trust in every one of Ting Yan's movements as she took away the innocence that she had wanted so much.

She could see the loyalty that Ting Yan had for her, thick and rich and sweet as chocolate cake.

She could see it all, but she could feel none of it.

*

A weary knock on her bedroom door and a nervous "Seungyeon?" broke the girl's concentration on her writing, and she sighed, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

Ting Yan slipped into the room, shadowlike, bringing in with her a tension palpable even through Seungyeon's confidence and Ting Yan's naivety. The witch dropped her quill onto the bedside table, delicately placing a ribbon in her journal to mark her spot and setting it aside as well.

"What is it, love?" she asked, common word so foreign and clunky on her tongue. Ting Yan bit her lip, with enough force to draw blood.

Seungyeon realized that once, before, when she had first fallen for Ting Yan, she might have felt the urge to lick away the blood, might have wanted to let the metallic liquid slowly run over her tongue and down her throat. Now, though?

She felt nothing.

"Seungyeon, I-we need to talk," Ting Yan's eyes shimmered and she fiddled with the edges of her grey sweater. She looked so small, so young and edible, that Seungyeon's heart almost pinched in guilt. Almost.

"Why?" Seungyeon prodded as soon as it was apparent Ting Yan wasn't planning on speaking first. "What's wrong?"

"I can see it, Seungyeon. I can feel it," Ting Yan's voice wavered. "At first I thought I was imagining it, making up things in my head, but now I know I'm not. Just...Seungyeon, are you bored of me? Are you-do you even want to be with me anymore?"

And a part of her wanted to comfort Ting Yan. The words on the tip of her tongue, the words that could buy her just a little more time, the words that could make Ting Yan melt in relief and emotion, skittered across her mind, daring her to hold on, but she just couldn't.

Her gaze flickered over to the horizon. The world was so big. There were so many beautiful people out there, far too many to count, and so many of them would be eager to have her. There were so many loves to experience, to want and taste and cherish, so why should she concentrate all her energies on one that was falling apart at the seams?

The words died away before they passed through her lips.

"Seungyeon?" Tears dripped down Ting Yan's pretty face, and she looked so _very_ lost. "Do you love me?"

Seungyeon swung her legs over her bed, onto the floor, bare feet coming into contact with the cold wood. She made her way towards the window that faced the gardens and the trees and the stars and the moon, fingers skipping over the dusty sill.

It would be a full moon that night.

"Ting Yan," she said, voice clear and cold as bells ringing in the early morning, and the name that once evoked images of the heavens and every starlit ocean and life in all of its eternity now held only letters. "You'll remember me."

She didn't have to turn around to know that Ting Yan's shoulders shook with huge, heartbroken sobs.

*

Rain fell from the bruised sky like millions of dying fireflies, reminiscent in a way, Seungyeon figured, as the darkness and the storm swallowed the retreating shape of Ting Yan from view.

She leaned against the window, watching, wondering, barely noticing when Seunghee crept up to her with two steaming mugs of tea.

The raging clouds parted for half a moment, and the full moon illuminated the world just long enough for Seungyeon to catch a glimpse of Ting Yan's silvery-blonde hair before she disappeared, stepping back into the forests she had first gotten lost in.

Seungyeon hadn't cried.

"So, that's it, then," Seunghee tried, effort not enough to keep the hope and relief out of her voice. "It's over now, right?"

_So many loves._

And this way was so _easy_.

That all-consuming force within her, aching and crying out for a companion, roared and growled, already starving again. Seungyeon sipped her tea and shrugged with a sly half-smile.

The moon, with all of its syrupy magic and twinkling enchantments, grinned down at her.

She thought back to the buzz, the rush, the high, of her very first days with dainty, evanescent Ting Yan.

And she was addicted.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for making it through this! Comments and kudos are my favorite things in the whole world!
> 
> (Also more CLC fics WHO'S WITH ME?)


End file.
